We’re hearing it everywhere: businesses are struggling to find quality hires. Although the labour market has softened, top talent remains in high demand. The amount of employers experiencing recruiting difficulty sits above 50%, with 75% reporting challenges filling roles.
What’s worse is when organisationsorganizations find the right person for the job, they could be rejected —or ghosted —at the offer stage. PageUp research shows an 11% increase in candidates declining offers over the past year.
To overcome this challenge, top recruiters in 2024 are tracking offer acceptance rate. Using this metric, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your recruitment process and how jobseekers view you in the market.
Offer acceptance rate is expressed as a percentage. It’s the number of offers accepted by candidates divided by the total number of offers made. In a perfect world, this number would be 100%, with every offer made accepted. But we all know that doesn’t happen, so what does good look like, and what should we aim for?
Why does it matter?
You might be asking yourself why you should care? If an applicant rejects your offer or disappears at the final hurdle, were they right for the job?
Sadly, it’s often fantastic candidates turning down job offers. It’s crucial to track and measure your offer acceptance rate to identify areas for improvement. Tracking this metric can help you understand how candidates are experiencing your company —and examine what you can do better.
What does a good acceptance rate look like?
According to PageUp data, the average acceptance rate is 90% —meaning that for every 100 offers given, 10 people say ‘no’. However, not all industries are the same. Our data shows that Government roles have the lowest acceptance rate, at 78% in 2024. In contrast, Retail acceptance rates are at their peak, climbing to 95% in 2024. With the best organisationsorganizations achieving offer acceptance rates of 99% — there is a sizable gap between the top-performing organisationsorganizations and industry benchmarks.
90%
The average offer acceptance rate across industries in 2024
Offer acceptance rate %
How to improve your offer acceptance rate
1. Focus on candidate experience
A key factor in whether a candidate accepts an offer is their experience throughout the recruitment journey. A negative experience can have a huge impact, with 42% of candidates declining job offers as a direct result of a bad interview experience.
Giving candidates a great experience can be as simple as asking the right questions in the interview. Get to know candidates on a personal level, and make an effort to understand their needs and career goals. This personalisationpersonalization can have a huge impact on the interaction —and the outcome of your job offer.
When it comes to high-volume roles, it’s not easy to keep all candidates informed and engaged. That’s where automated communications come into play. Simply notifying the candidates that you’re experiencing high levels of applications shows them you are interested and provides your recruiter with a little more time to get through applications.
Another way to ensure you’re always providing the best experience is to ask for feedback on the hiring experience from both successful and unsuccessful candidates, as well as those who decline your offer. This will provide you with the insights needed to continually improve your processes, ensure you deliver great experiences, and understand what made them say ‘no’.
2. Differentiate through your employer brand and EVP
Candidates are more likely to accept an offer if they feel aligned to your company. 56% of candidates won’t consider a role if the values are misaligned. You need to highlight what makes your organisationorganization unique to differentiate from the competition.
Creating a strong, tangible employer brand can be a great way to increase your offer acceptance rate. Highlight awards, employee testimonials and reviews to help solidify your employer brand reputation and build trust with potential candidates.
Take some time to review your careerscareer site —is it engaging? Does it promote all the company perks and benefits? Can jobseekers clearly see your DE&I initiatives? Positioning your company as a place people want to work will only benefit your offer acceptance rate.
3. Provide an authentic view of your company
Jobseekers crave authenticity and transparency —and modern hiring practices must reflect this. Consider ways to increase transparency in the recruitment process, such as: disclosing salary, benefits or flexible working arrangements upfront. Give candidates the opportunity to ask questions, and connect with current employees.Tools like Employee Connections allow candidates to interact with current employees, ask questions and receive authentic responses from their peers. They can gain insight into things like company culture, a day-in-the-life stories, and the team dynamic.
PageUp’s Employee Connections tools connect careerscareer site visitors directly with your employees via live Q&A, testimonials, discussions, videos and more.
4. Speed up your processes
It’s important not to waste time in the recruiting process. Top talent will always have options, and long, drawn-out hiring processes means you risk losing your first choice, and your silver medalist, too.
Ensuring you have the best tools in place, like an ATS, can help enhance efficiency by automating tasks, workflows, and communications. These features streamline the management and processing of applications, help identify qualified candidates, and ensure the hiring of top-quality team members. You can also utiliseutilize tools like Text Engage to speed up your time-to-hire, and to reach candidates no matter where they are.
Final thoughts
Knowing what’s working and what’s not is critical to successful recruiting. Tracking your offer acceptance rate, along with other metrics, means you can fine-tune your recruitment activities and stay ahead of the competition. Check out our recruitment metrics report to find out what other metrics you need to focus on.
PageUp can provide one seamless solution for all your hiring needs. Book a demo with our team today to see how it all comes together.
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